Imran Khan: I am careful about who I work with

Imran Khan: I am careful about who I work with

Imran Khan's last release Once Upon A Time in MumbaiDobaara (OUATIMD) may not have done well, but the actor is confident that one flop won’t affect his career.

The 30-year-old actor’s next film -- Gori Tere Pyar Mein -- directed by Punit Malhotra and costarring Kareena Kapoor, releases on November 22.

In this interview with Sonil Dedhia, Imran talks about what went wrong with OUATIMD, why he wasn't initially convinced with the script of Gori Tere Pyar Mein, and takes stock of his film career so far.

After experimenting with unusual characters in films in Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola and OUATIMD, you are back to doing a romantic comedy with Gori Tere Pyar Mein (GTPM).

Rom-com as a genre is always fun and it is something that I personally enjoy doing. I have had a lot of success with it.

I have worked with Punit (Malhotra, on I Hate Luv Storys) and Bebo (Kareena Kapoor, on Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu) before and I share a fantastic equation with both of them.

So, after doing some serious roles, I suddenly felt very much in my comfort zone when shooting for Gori….

Every morning I woke up with a smile on my face and was eager to go on the sets.

'Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Dobaara did not get a proper release'

There were a lot of expectations from OUATIMD, but the film didn't do well. What went wrong?

The film was released in just 1000 screens. Today, any big film releases in 3000 screens. This was the biggest problem.

According to me, the film wasn't bad. I was very happy with my work but, unfortunately, some things are not in your hands.

As an actor I concentrate on my performance but beyond that things are not in my control.

In one of your interviews you said that actors are desperate for audiences’ appreciation. How detrimental was the poor response to OUATIM to you?

Personally, I felt that I got a very good response for my role in the film.

As I said earlier, if you release your film with one quarter of the number of prints, people will not see your film. That being said, our opening day collection for the number of screens we had was very good.

Also for me it was an exposure to an audience I did not have access to before. I have done more urban films so this was the first time I was doing a film that took me to a new audience.

Many people felt you were unfit for the role. Do you think maybe they were right?